title: Our love for animals.
abstract: Love does not necessarily benefit its object, and cost-free love may damage both object and subject. Our love of animals mobilises several distinct human concerns and should not be considered always as a virtue or always as a benefit to the animals themselves. We need to place this love in its full psychological, cultural, and moral context in order to assess what form it ought to take if animals are to benefit from it.
authors.affiliation: Oxford University, Brinkworth, Wiltshire, UK, rogerscruton@mac.com.
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Scruton
mesh_terms: D000827:Animal Welfare; D000818:Animals; D026688:Bioethical Issues; D001675:Bioethics; D006801:Humans; D008149:Love; D009769:Object Attachment